(SAN DIEGO) PLNU Men's Soccer nearly pulled off a furious second half comeback on Thursday afternoon against Cal State Dominguez Hills before the Toros held on to edge the Sea Lions, 2-1.
CSUDH scored twice in the first half, in the 25th and 37th minutes, to take a two-goal lead into the break before Point Loma flipped the momentum in the second half and nearly found an equalizing goal.
"I'm disappointed with the way we started the game, but proud that we fought back into it in the second half," Head Coach
Phil Wolf said. "We were just nowhere near where we needed to be for the first 60 minutes."
Facing a two-goal deficit, PLNU started brightly in the second half with
Simon Sagal forcing a save that went out for a corner kick, one of six corners for the Sea Lions earned after halftime.
Point Loma finally got its breakthrough in the 66th minute through
Emmett Layman, who scored his third goal of the season to tie for the team lead.
A neat combination between
Curtis Collazos and
Inaki Santamarina, who had both just re-entered the game less than a minute earlier, found Layman on the left side of the box to cut inside and curl a right-footed shot inside the far post.
Elijah Langford nearly equalized just moments later, with his shot requiring a save from the outstretched foot of the opposing goalkeeper.
Langford later appeared to be dragged down in the box but no penalty was called.
The Sea Lions continued to pressure the Toros, who somehow managed to hold on despite PLNU's 12-5 advantage in shots, including 9-1 in the second half.
Point Loma (2-2-1 overall) next travels to play at Azusa Pacific on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
